Ohio State Football - Central Ohio News

The Boilermakers are doing away with a long-standing tradition, changing from black jerseys to gold tops this season in hopes of changing their luck. With the Drew Brees Era nothing but a fond memory, they slumped to 6-6 last season after their record-setting quarterback led them to a share of the Big Ten title and a Rose Bowl berth the year before.

At Illinois, the motto is “Take the next step.” The last step, if you remember, was a killer as the Illini stumbled in a 47-34 loss to LSU in the Sugar Bowl.

That sobering outcome, and the departure of prolific passer Kurt Kittner, explains why a second-division finish is forecast for the defending league champions despite the return of 14 starters.

Ohio State coach Jim Tressel, whose Buckeyes are highly touted along with Michigan, has a hard time seeing a precipitous slide by the Illini.

“To me that doesn’t make sense,” Tressel said. “I think Ron (Turner) has done a nice job of developing a system, and they just happened to have the same guy (Kittner) running it. They’ve still got a good program and people who understand the system.

“I think (the loss of Kittner) will be less of a problem in the stage where the program is now than people might think.”

Still, a dramatic fall from power isn’t impossible. Ask Northwestern. The Wildcats went from first (in 2000) to worst (in 2001) and appear to be in a major rebuilding mode, although coach Randy Walker denies it.

“We have more talent than in 2000, I’m convinced of that,” he said. “The question is: Will we come together as a team?”

The marketing department at Northwestern must think that will happen because it has trotted out this slogan: “While the Bears are away, the Cats will play.”

Renovation of Soldier Field has forced the Chicago Bears to play this year’s home games two hours away at the University of Illinois. But if the Wildcats are to capture the attention of the Windy City masses, they’ll have to find replacements for tailback Damien Anderson and quarterback Zak Kustok.

Gerry DiNardo, the league’s only new coach, is fighting the perception you can’t win at Indiana because it’s a basketball school. Maybe DiNardo should adopt this motto: “The ball isn’t always round!”

“You have to look at what Maryland has done in both their sports,” DiNardo said. “There’s evidence that you can sell (football and basketball). Why can’t we be good at both? It basically comes down to us having good players.”

Right now, DiNardo would settle for having players, period. Not counting freshmen, he inherits only 49 players on scholarship. As he starts from scratch, DiNardo can take solace knowing that since 1990 every school except IU and Minnesota has won at least a share of a Big Ten title.

That parity, unfortunately, has looked like mediocrity the last couple of years. The Big Ten has labored through back-to-back 2-4 bowl seasons and last season failed to put a team in the final Top 10 for the first time since 1984.

League members went 6-12 overall against the five BCS conferences last year and didn’t have a winning record against any of them. Especially glaring was last year’s 0-3 bowl record against the Southeastern Conference, a circuit that rubbed its superiority in the Big Ten’s face.

Tennessee trounced Michigan 45-17 in the Citrus Bowl, Illinois fell behind 34-7 at halftime in its Sugar Bowl loss to LSU and OSU trailed 28-0 before rallying in its 31-28 Outback Bowl loss to South Carolina.

Believe it or not, Ohio State has finished out of the Top 25 the last three seasons. Michigan hasn’t been to the Rose Bowl since winning the national championship in 1997.

But a new season always brings new optimism.

“I haven’t heard anyone say they had a bad spring or summer,” Wisconsin coach Barry Alvarez said. “A number of teams in this league feel like they have a chance to be an elite team.”